I'm now at the end of Act 1. Edda has managed to get back into her own hut and see if she can understand what this strange man's deal is.

I've done a lot of graphical work this week, including redesigning the interior of her hut to be moody, dark and fit the style of the other three "finished" (who am I kidding) rooms.

Looking at the puzzle flow of Act 1, it's clear that Act 1 requires Edda to procure two items, combine them and use them to gain access to her hut.

As it stands, I think both items are a little easy to get. I might be wrong - I might get this play-tested again to be sure - but I feel like both items need an extra layer of challenge. 

I'm treating this as one game, but it's actually four acts which are basically self-contained episodes. It's what I was going to do with Hey Der Undy, but I just was nowhere near capable at that point.

So I'm so very close to finishing "episode 1". Then I can work on Act 2 completely clean of Act 1. An item or two might carry over, but I don't think I'll rehash existing areas (remember, I always want to reward the player by unlocking new rooms). Eventually, I'm sure Edda will have to revisit places, but not in Act 2 (probably).

This is her hut:

Other projects

I have other projects in mind at the moment. Thought I might as well list them so I can laugh at myself in 2 years when I'm still doing this game:

Jim Was Boring - A game I'm designing with fellow Bit Much creative, Imacoconut. This has been in the pipeline for a year now, but we suddenly are taking it quite seriously. In my head it's a weird, monochrome game about getting a little obsessed with a weird bloke and his dull life. At one point Jim was a bunch of guys in a car (remember?). I decided that I combine their personalities to make one horrifying character.

Village Game - Have I mentioned this before? I have designed a bunch of characters for a game where you are a kid in a village in the early 90s. It's where the village was basically an adventure world you could just run round in. The characters look great - it's also obviously autobiographical and I have a strong macguffin idea. I am not a nostalgic person, but I'm going to try and tap into it for once.

Undy in Murder Apres Ski! - Note that this is an Undy game; this is not a Hey Der Undy game. I'm not sure where I'm going with Hey Der Undy now. I have played them both recently and I've just changed so much as a game-maker since even a year ago that I find both Hey Der Undy games pretty hard work to even look at. Undy is a character I love though, so a reboot or redux is my preference. The title presumably gives you an idea of the plot concept.

I could do another Edda game, or rather a prequel as I have a really nice idea. I also have another idea to do with sailing round to different islands, but that's really because I've made a vaguely decent tech demo of sailing round an ocean to, uh, different islands. I will not make a game again without a strong idea, so that one is *way* off.